While I have had people dismiss my being Autistic, I am quite aware that I won’t ever be treated as badly as those who are more divergent from the Anglosphere’s normativity around its “idealized human” (Anglo White Cis-Hetero Male).
This article is a response to:
Situatedness: I’m a cis-hetero male of Irish, Scottish and French descent (Meaning, by contemporary subjective definitions of the social construct of race that imposes a social hierarchy, I’m White.)
There is an enhancement to the article by Neurodivergent Rebel that I would like to make.
In an individualistic, androcentric and misogynistic culture, it isn’t only women that are the target. When the target is an individual, it is any individual who is not considered a “real man”.
While this obviously includes women, it also includes LGBTQIA2S+, and goes all the way to targeting cis-hetero males that aren’t considered “man enough” (such as myself, who isn’t competitive, doesn’t like sports or cars, doesn’t drive, etc).
Unlike how things are presented under Western European “Enlightenment” individualism and universalism, this isn’t merely some bad apples. The manosphere is like a funhouse mirror that amplifies an aspect of this society to make it more visible, but it is a problem within the core identity, values, and culture of this society. I see it throughout the Anglosphere (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom), and not merely in the one specific more visible, open and honest sub-community of the manosphere, and not only within one country.
The claim that Autism, ADHD, and so much more only apply to “White Males”, and that real “White Males” are the only deserving demographic deserving, isn’t unique to the manosphere.
It is a flaw within this society (Anglosphere) that has needed REAL correction for a very long time, and not merely performative hyper-individualistic finger pointing. As part of post-WW2 Allied marketing there is a claim that Eugenics was a German thing, when in fact all the Germans did was be inspired by Anglosphere (Primarily UK, Canada, USA) ideologies and engineer an efficient implementation plan. Because the Anglosphere hasn’t sufficiently lost a war, it has never been forced into any true Truth and Reconciliation process ), and the underlying ideologies have never been eradicated. (Note: Canada’s TRC process for “Indian Residential Schools” has been largely performative, focused on one genocidal policy, and the harm is ongoing.)
In a hyper-competitive androcentric society, scarcity will always be manufactured in order to impose the hierarchy, so they are technically correct that any “not real men” receiving support means that their top position in the hierarchy is, in their mind, being undervalued. It is yet another form of aggrieved entitlement.
From the perspective of these ideologies, gender roles are a binary: Either you are a “real man”, or you are a tradwife (a married woman who willingly embraces conventional Anglosphere gender roles). Everything else is treated as a disease that must be cured. I do note that while conversion therapy is outlawed for some “invisible diversities”, adjacent therapy such as ABA is still the most common “therapy” for Autistic people.
